Jammu, Dec 7:
Continuing the pre-budget consultations for the next financial year, Principal Secretary Finance, Navin K. Choudhary today chaired two separate meetings and held marathon discussions on the functioning and budgetary requirements of the PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control and Home Departments. Principal Secretary Home, R.K. Goyal, ADGP Security & Law and Order, Muneer Ahmed Khan, ADGP Headquarters, AG Mir along with other senior officers represented the Home Department, while as Secretary PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Farooq Ahmed Shah along with a team of senior officers attended the meeting. Senior officers including, Director Budget, Imtyaz Ahmed Wani, Directors Expenditures, Shabir Ahmed Khan, Parvez Ahmed Kakroo, Joint Director Budget, Raman Kumar Gupta and others attended the meeting regarding Finance Department. While discussing the budget proposals of PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control Departments, the Principal Secretary Finance called for regular monitoring of all on-going schemes and their time bound completion. He stressed the need for a long-term planning to meet the ever growing needs of drinking water, particularly in the twin capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar, where the flow of population is growing steadfastly. He called upon the engineers to suggest tangible measures and formulating viable projects keeping in view the future requirements to avoid possible hardships on this account. Stressing the need for restoration of the traditional water resource in the rural areas, Navin asked the engineers to work out the possibilities to tap the natural resources and take concrete steps for the water conservation. He emphasized on promoting judicious use of water through a comprehensive awareness campaign on saving water and its resources. He suggested for an advanced strategy to meet the swelling demand of drinking water in Jammu region during the summer months and in Kashmir valley and Ladakh region during the winter season. He also urged for sufficient provision of tanker service to feed the vulnerable areas in the State. Navin asked both the departments to curtail all unfruitful expenditures under various heads by taking effective austerity measures to lessen the burden on government exchequer.
